Essex Uprights

The entry into the Steinway family of uprights — designed by Steinway & Sons in collaboration with renowned furniture designer William Faber — the Essex upright has been created in the spirit of the Steinway heritage as a tribute to the idea that beautiful piano styles and finishes can and should be possible in every price range. With elegant traditional styling and museum-quality finishes, Essex will be a stunning addition to your home. The instrument is available in an array of models, sizes, and veneers to fit every décor and lifestyle.

Sound &Style

Exceptional sound and incredible value are the basis for every Essex upright. Elegant details in molding, finishes, and hardware compliment every home, whether it's a mid-century apartment, industrial loft or country getaway.

explore the Essex Upright

Essex uprights come in a variety of case styles, and are well-suited for the spectrum of home décor styles and personal aesthetics. From satin black to aubergine mahagony; brass hardware to nickel; contemporary to classic — the Essex line celebrates the marriage of form and function.

High-grade, straight-grained, quarter-sawn spruce is used for the soundboard's resonant qualities and high strength-to-mass ratio. The soundboard is solid and not laminated, which creates the best resonance and projection of sound. In 1936, Steinway patented the diaphragmatic soundboard, which was designed to be thicker in the middle and gently tapered to the edges. The Essex soundboard has tapered thickness from bass to treble. A thinner soundboard in the bass area vibrates more freely, resulting in a richer, fuller tone.

Essex backposts are massive — providing a solid foundation for the resonating soundboard and tensioned vibrating strings, thus helping create a beautiful tone. Essex backpost locations are staggered — located where the string tension is greatest, instead of neatly equidistant. Massive staggered backposts help provide superb tone and maximum stability, ensuring the piano will last, tunings will be more stable, and piano tone will be enhanced for the years and decades to come.

A low tension string scale, designed by Steinway, gives a fuller, richer, warmer tone by allowing more of the lower partials to sing. It also has more sustain, is more powerful, has more dynamic range, and provides warmer and more mellow tones.

All-wood action parts, solid spruce keys, and excellent action geometry work seamlessly together to move the hammers to the strings and to create an excellent action touch. The beautiful tone produced by the Steinway–specified Essex hammers actually enhances the action touch by “giving back” the player a beautiful tone.

The EUP-123CL, or French Studio Upright, is a nicely balanced upright with elegantly proportioned cabriole legs. The French furniture design influence is apparent in the beautifully carved relief and curved, raised accent moldings.

Grace and flair perfectly describe the Formal French Upright (EUP-116FF), which is available in two rack designs: one, a solid design accented by rope molding and carved ornaments at the center top and bottom. The other, an expressive open rack design (pictured), that features graceful curves and top center hand-carved ornamentation.

This finely crafted English Country Upright (EUP-116EC) is warm and appealing, reflecting a lustrous satin finish. The timeless, tasteful design, and effortless beauty is sure to intrigue the discriminating home decorator.

The well-balanced proportion and graceful appearance of the Queen Anne Upright (EUP-116QA) brings style and refinement to any home. It is distinguished by exceptional craftsmanship, utilizing linear curvature design, soft outlines and simplicity. The beautiful hand-carved reliefs on the legs are also known as Acanthus leaf, symbolizing quality, longevity and creativity.

Form follows function in the sumptuous Contemporary Upright (EUP-116CT). A wonderful interpretation of the modern style, it features a deep eggplant / aubergine color popular for today's furniture. This model is an ideal complement for many decorating styles.